Teen Athletes Fight Ousters

Seminole Hearing Fails To Resolve Dispute, Will Continue

December 11, 1998|By Leslie Postal of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD - On Sept. 8, an upset aide reported to Seminole High School's principal some unpleasant allegations - school athletes might have been drinking at a Sanford restaurant after a football game and at New Smyrna Beach on the Labor Day holiday.

That conversation spawned what has turned into a lengthy battle between two football players and the school district.

The players are fighting the 30-day team suspensions the district wants to impose because they violated the district's citizenship policy.

The policy regulates the off-campus behavior of athletes and other students who participate in extracurricular activities.

Lee Moore and Jeremy Taylor are accused of drinking or serving alcohol at the outing.

On Thursday, the players' parents resumed their appeal of the suspensions to the School Board. That hearing began Oct. 22. Thursday, after nearly six hours of testimony and legal wrangling, it was not over.

The case, which has included one detour to court, is scheduled to resume Tuesday.

The players' parents and attorney argue the policy is unconstitutional, an invasion of privacy and an infringement of parents' rights.

They also say in this case it was improperly and unfairly enforced, with only some of the accused ever facing punishment. No one accused of drinking at the restaurant that same weekend, for example, got in trouble.

``If everyone had been punished, they would never have heard from us,'' said Moore's mother, Sally.

Moore said she was upset that her son was punished harshly because he confessed when he was confronted. Those who lied got away with what they did, she said.

She and her husband are challenging the district so their son knows ``he can count on us to be behind him.''

Officials targeted a few students because they didn't have enough evidence to punish others, and because some weren't involved in sports or activities, Ned Julian, district attorney, said.

The citizenship policy says athletes or club members can be suspended if they're caught drinking, taking drugs, gambling, possessing a fake I.D. or smoking. The policy applies for the duration of a season.

The two football players refused for the second time to testify, though they may have to later.

Principal Gretchen Schapker was Thursday's main witness. Howard Marks, the players' attorney, accused her of suspending the teens too quickly, improperly backdating a witness statement and coercing the players into implicating themselves.

Schapker admitted she suspended the students too soon - those suspensions were then put on hold - but grew angry at the suggestion she mistreated the teens.

``Mr. Marks,'' she said, ``you will never understand how deeply I'm concerned about the students.''

Seminole High's football season ended last month, and neither player missed any games because their appeal had not been resolved.

Moore, injured in a September game, was out for the season anyway. The suspensions could apply to other sports this year or next.

Thursday, both teens were described as decent students who didn't cause trouble.

But school officials said their statements showed both violated the policy.

In his written statement, Moore, a 10th-grader, admitted he drank so much vodka during that beach outing that he got sick.

Taylor's written statement was less clear-cut, but Schapker said the senior told her that he supplied the vodka to his friends. In his written statement, he implied he had done wrong by writing, ``We all shall take our punishment as responsible men.''